Home Folder

HI

We have a server 2003 network with 2000/xp clients, on the 2000 clients they have only a 10GB hard disk. When they run out of space we have to delete all the profiles of the pupils in the Documents & Settings folder, one pc had 6GB of data. We have a mandatory profile set up but it seems the pc is downloading the pupils home folder and not deleting it when the user logs off

Anyone heard of or seen this issue please help

Lee H

Find more posts tagged with

SAVE $250 on Your Microsoft Boot Camp — Use Code "EXAM26"

Exclusively for TechExams members for Infosec Boot Camps starting before April 30, 2026

View Microsoft Boot Camps

Comments

eurotrash

redirect their My Documents to a network location?

When they run out of space we have to delete all the profiles of the pupils in the Documents & Settings folder

lol, sounds very drastic. you could use quotas to prevent them from using too much space.

Lee H

Hi

Sounds like the one to fix it but do i do that in the GPO

Lee H

eurotrash

yes, under User Configuration > Windows Settings > Folder Redirection.

Lee H

Hi

I have navigated to the GPO folder redirection settings but unsure how to configure it, is it right to say that if they are downloading their home folder to the local machine then they then access their work from their local machine and not from the server, if thats the case then setting this up will increase network traffic 10 fold, can folder redirection be applied when u have a mandatory profile set up

Lee H

First time seeing these settings and dont want to make things worse by messin wit the GPO

eurotrash

i'll try it on my lab in 10 minutes. in the mean time why don't you tell me specifically what you hope to accomplish and what their settings should be. (users' documents staying on server? mandatory profiles?)

Lee H

Hi

Thanks for your help, appreciate it.

All i need to achieve is the 2000 clients not running out of hard disk space, so if i could set it up so that when the pupil logs off it deletes the home folder from the documents and settings folder thus not filling the hard disk when 50 useres have logged on. if your solution will fix this i will go with it but not sure if the server will be used more because they are constantly accessing their work from the server as apose to the local machine as i think they do know ( purley a guess ).

Thanks again for ya help

Lee H

eurotrash

ok so i created a user named Bud in dsa.msc.
then changed the default domain policy (though you may want to use a less destructive gpo) to redirect the My Documents folder to a share i created on the server (the Basic option).
gave the share appropriate permissions so it can create the user's mydocs when the user logs on.

i then logged on to my client as Bud and checked the properties of the My Documents folder (the one accessible from My Computer) and under Target Folder Location, the network path was listed.
on the server, in the share, a folder was created named Bud, inside of which was a folder named My Documents.
i then checked Bud's local profile under docs and settings, and it was all there except the My Documents folder (which was relocated to the network share).

so essentially the user will have his My Documents folder (or whichever one you redirect) stored on the server, when he creates a file in his My Documents he is creating it on the server, not the local pc.
so yes, they would all be accessing the server. which would solve the problem of local disk space, and unless they are streaming dvds over the lan (it's a LAN, right?), i imagine it should be fine. if you have a dedicated hard disk for this it would be good.

on second thought, it made a synchronization when i logged off. perhaps it caches the files you're working on, then updates the server at logoff (and deletes them from the local pc). so that you don't actually "work" on the server, the client will download the file and work on it locally (which is of course easier on the server) and then synchronyze (and delete the local copy) at logoff.
at least that is my assumption.
i think it's a win-win.

Lee H

Hi

I eventually got to the bottom of it, what was happenin is when a user logs on it downloads their profile to the documents and settings folder, when the user logged off it didnt delete it, so it was only a matter of time till the c drive filled with the same copy of the profile, option in our machine gpo to fix this

computers / computer configuration / admin templates / system / user profiles - delete cached copy of roaming profiles.

Thanks for ya help

Lee H

eurotrash

glad you got it sorted